Uptime is Google’s Experimental App to Socialize YouTube Videos

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It’s no big secret that Google has been working on adding social elements to its YouTube videos. They have recently introduced an in-app sharing feature inside YouTube, but that was only the beginning it seems.

The company is now rolling out a new iOS-exclusive app called Uptime which is its effort to socialize video viewing. Basically, Uptime is an app that lets users watch real-time videos together with friends no matter where they are.

Users can sign in to the app using their Google account, which helps them to easily find their friends and family. Once the basic setup is complete, users can watch the videos that are being watched by their contacts on real-time basis. Uptime also have innovated the scroll bar of videos by putting them around like a video frame. This also carries profile picture of your contacts to show exactly which portion of the video they are watching.

Uptime also features the common social features like commenting on videos, insert emojis and reaction faces, and more. Those interactions will stay there with the videos so that other users can watch them when viewing the videos, even if they are watching the videos at a later point. Uptime also features minor embellishments like shooting stars into the frame by touching the screen. Those will appear for all users who are watching the video live, but won’t be available if watched later.

Users can download the app for free, but to use it, they would require an invitation code that’s made available through the official Twitter account. Uptime is currently exclusive to iOS, and there’s no word on whether it will be made available for Android devices.

The app is an offspring of Area 120, Google’s internal incubator that aims at bringing out more from their employees by letting them dedicate a portion of their work time for side projects. That said, it needs to be seen whether the app will be receiving continuous support from Google.